“Hope College is a Christian community that invites all its members into a holistic and robust engagement with the historic Christian faith and a personal encounter with the living Christ through the Holy Spirit.”
—Hope College’s Christian Aspirations
Hope is committed to providing a world-class education “in the context of the historic Christian faith.” (That line is from the college’s mission statement.) Practically speaking, this means the Christian identity of the college is much broader than the good work being done through Campus Ministries: God is moving and working in Hope’s classrooms and laboratories, athletic fields and Pine Grove, residence halls and cottages and cafeterias.
This new Faith at Hope blog intends to celebrate, support and promote Hope’s Christian mission by sharing the stories of the people of God at Hope College. In that way, it will be an extension of, and in service to, Hope’s identity as a Christian community, and it aims to answer two questions rooted in our Christian Aspirations:
- In what ways are community members engaging with the historic Christian faith throughout the college?
- What does it look like when community members personally encounter the living Christ through the Holy Spirit?
Following Hope’s Christian Aspirations, the blog aims to be faithful, welcoming, and transformational.
FAITHFUL
The Faith at Hope blog celebrates Hope College’s ecumenically Christian character, recognizing that Christian faithfulness at Hope takes many forms. With a goal of promoting the wide diversity of the body of Christ, the blog is committed to telling the stories of what faithfulness at Hope looks like in its many Christian voices and expressions. As a reflection of our faithful community, the blog will be a platform committed to the historic Christian faith as expressed in the ecumenical creeds of the ancient church.
WELCOMING
Like Hope College, the Faith at Hope blog welcomes people of all faith — or no faith at all — with an invitation to experience the love and good news of God’s forgiveness found in Jesus Christ. To this end, it seeks to tell the many, varied stories of how Christian students, faculty, staff, and other community members are experiencing and expressing their faith at Hope.
TRANSFORMATIONAL
The Faith at Hope blog recognizes that a personal encounter with the living Christ through the Holy Spirit transforms all of life — every field of study or play, every classroom and dorm, every academic, cocurricular, and personal pursuit. As such, the blog has the widest possible scope for sharing testimonies of how the Spirit is transforming the people and place of Hope. It does not aim to prescribe what Christian transformation must look like; rather, it will describe the transformational work that the Spirit is already doing in every sphere of life at Hope College.
So, with those three aspirations in mind — faithful, welcoming, and transformational — we invite you to follow along as we explore Faith at Hope in the coming months.